Post-Surgery

After my MRI results showed a meniscus tear and loose cartilage on my left knee, it was FINALLY time for surgery.  This knee has been bothering me with pain--off and on---for years now.  Every time I think I'm going to have it looked at, I get sucked into fighting cancer again.  Not this time.  We were going to do something about it!  

Thankfully, Dr. V. had a cancelectomy on Friday morning, the first case of the day.  Stephen counseled me to get the first case of the day, as that is the ONLY one guaranteed to start on time.  I didn't want to be one of the afternoon cases and go hours and hours without anything to eat or drink.  It also worked out that, but some amazing coincidence, that Stephen was off on Friday.  Also, his brother came into town and SAVED us by getting up with our boys and getting them off to school.  This way, Stephen was able to drive me and stay at the hospital for updates. 

Since I'd already pre-registered, I was back in my room before Stephen parked the car.  I had time to change and watch a little tv while we waited.  The nurse came in and BY ANOTHER AMAZING MIRACLE, she ACTUALLY LISTENED when I told her that I'm a hard stick.  And, what do you know?  She nailed the I.V.!!!  This is truly the greatest blessing of the day.  I HATE I.V.s.  Hate them. Usually, I tell the nurse that I'm a hard stick.  He or she then feels my veins and says something like, "this one is great.  I can get it."  I remind him or her that I AM A HARD STICK, but they don't believe me and go ahead....without numbing medicine....and, what do you know?  MISSES.   For every single procedure I have ever had done that required and I.V., the average is me having 2-3 needle sticks before an I.V. gets started correctly.  But, this nurse listened.  She explained that she's learned the hard way to listen.  Now, she stays away from those "teaser veins," as she calls them, the ones that feel like they're great, but are just teasing you.  She used numbing medicine and got the IV in on the first try....WITHOUT ANY READJUSTMENTS!!!!  And, I didn't feel a thing!  This was an answer to prayers, so thank you to all who prayed for this procedure!  Good came from it before the hard part got started!!!

Anesthesia came in....handpicked by Stephen....we rolled back, I moved over the to OR table....and things went black until I was not wanting to wake up from my amazing nap.  

Dr. V. came to talk to Stephen and gave him this pictures of my knee.  The top left picture is from my medial side.  It looks good.  The other pictures show the meniscus tear, as well as some red/pink on the bones.  This is the bad part.  "She's been dealing with this a long time, hasn't she?," Dr. V asked Stephen.  (He's another example of my high pain tolerance NOT always being a good thing.  Should've taken care of this sooner.)  "This is basically bone on bone, so she's going to need cortisone shots.  When those don't work, a knee replacement."  What I've learned from this?  DO NOT PUT OFF going to the doctor!!!  Perhaps if I had taken care of this before hand, I could've saved more of my knee.  

Physical Therapy then came in to instruct me on using the crutches to walk and go up and down stairs.  They also explained and practiced 6 different exercises that I need to do 2-3 times each day.  It's also important to keep in elevated and iced to keep the swelling down.  

After that, we were home before 11:00, and I was able to rest for most of the afternoon!

I'm hopeful that I'll recover well and have some relief from the pain.  Time will tell, but for now I'm grateful that the surgery went smoothly and for the prayers and great care from all the doctors, nurses, and techs who assisted in this procedure and helped make my experience a good one!

Do men�s and women�s choices of field of study explain why women earn less than men?

by Dirk Van Damme
Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division, Directorate for Education and Skills

Fields of education are ranked in descending order of the share of men who studied in this specific field.

Although we�ve observed for a long time that young men and women tend to choose different fields of study � young men are more apt than young women to pursue a degree in engineering while more women than men opt for a teaching career, for example � until recently, we have had no reliable data to support this perception. Nor could we measure the impact of these choices on employment and earnings. But recent data collections, such as the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), finally offer some quantitative evidence on these crucial issues.

The latest Education Indicators in Focus brief summarises the available evidence from the Survey of Adult Skills on gender differences across fields of study. The data are mind-blowing. As shown in the figure above, across the countries and subnational entities with available data, only 7% of women had studied engineering, manufacturing and construction, compared to 31% of men. In contrast, the share of women who had graduated from a teacher-training and education-science programme or from a health and welfare programme is more than double that of men. These are averages, and differences among countries in the magnitude of the gender gaps between fields of study are also large.

Why women and men choose to pursue different fields of study, and why those choices vary among countries, is not easy to determine. Gender stereotyping of jobs and occupations, which often result in different career expectations for girls and boys, and gendered roles in personal and professional life all influence the decisions that lead to gender-related differences in the choice of studies and careers. But whatever the causes may be, the consequences are clear. As discussed in the Education in Focus brief, employment patterns differ between fields of study, depending on the gender imbalance. Because of higher rates of inactivity among women, the employment rates of graduates from the field of teacher training and education, which is mainly chosen by women, tend to be lower than that for more male-dominated fields of study. Indeed, for all fields of study, the employment rate among men is significantly higher than that among women.

Obviously, this has an impact on men�s and women�s earnings. Some fields of study lead to higher wages than others; these are usually male-dominated fields. Inactivity and employment patterns also add to gender gaps in earnings. But how important are the differences in men�s and women�s choices of field of study in explaining overall gender inequality in, for example, earnings?

The gender gap in earnings can be attributed to average earnings differences between fields of study and different rates of participation in the labour market and in employment; but it is also related to the gender-stereotyped  profiles of occupations and career developments within each field.

To assess the latter, it is interesting to look at earnings differences between men and women in a specific field of study, preferably one where gender differences in graduation are not too large, such as in social sciences, business and law. Some 27% of all 25-64 year-old respondents in the Survey of Adult Skills had graduated from this field, with a difference of only a few percentage points between men and women. On average across OECD countries and subnational entities surveyed, women working in this field earn only 75% of what men earn. In Chile and Japan, women who graduated from social sciences, business and law earn less than 60% of what men in the same field earn.

Gender-related differences in labour-force participation or in salary schemes are certainly not the main reasons for these earnings disparities: even in a region with high female participation in the labour force and legislated gender equality in labour conditions and salary, such as Flanders (Belgium), women still earn more than 25% less than what men working in the same field earn.

Tackling gender inequalities in employment and income will require the dismantling of gender stereotypes of fields of study and occupations. Getting more young women into the field of engineering and more young men into teacher training would be an excellent first step. But we also need to remove the glass ceilings and the explicit and implicit discriminations in the labour market and the professions that prevent women from occupying more senior positions within specific fields. As is evident in this year�s edition of Education at a Glance, even within a largely female-dominated field such as education, school principals still are predominantly men. It�s about time that we remove all the obstacles that prevent half of the world�s population from allowing their skills and talents to flourish unimpeded.

Links:
Education Indicators in Focus No. 45: Fields of education, gender and the labour market, by Gara Rojas Gonz�lez, Simon Normandeau and Rie Fujisawa.
Indicateurs de l'�ducation � La Loupe No. 45: Domaines d��tudes et march� du travail: o� en sont les hommes et les femmes ?
Education at a Glance 2016: OECD Indicators
Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)

Chart source: OECD, (2012, 2015) Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publicdataandanalysis.

Shipwreck Grill Fundraiser

Twelve hours of fun/work.

Amazing opportunity.

Incredible community Support.

Pink Warriors.

So grateful and honored.  

So many local businesses were in a giving mood.  We ended up with TEN packages to give away at the raffle!!!  (I wish I would've thought ahead of time about having someone there to sell tickets while I was eating or mingling.)  I was also able to use the raffle money to sponsor our local support group in the virtual 5K we are doing, as well as to help with our float for the local Christmas parade.

I loved pulling out some of the pink decor I've collected over the year--the pink pumpkin my Pink Warriors made for me last year, the art I won at last year's Pink Alliance luncheon....so fun!

I was able to give out lots of paper cranes and tell the story of Sadako, while passing on wishes of love and hope!

My picture is in this Beyond Boobs! 2017 calendar!  We sold some at the event.  

At each of the tables, we put these thank-yous, along with a little background on the story.  

I was so glad so many of our friends and co-workers were able to come join us for a fun day.  

With all the generous donations from the 20% of the profits of the restaurant's sales as well as those from our gofundme account, we were almost able to raise enough for our deductible and co-insurance for 2017!!!  Thank you!  Thank you!!!

H&P #14 + Flu Shot

This week has been busy, busy, busy!  My fundraiser at Shipwreck Grill was so much fun and exhausting; I feel like it's taken me a whole week to recover.  Thank you, thank you to everyone who came and who was there in spirit.  We are so grateful for the love and generosity of all of you.  (More pictures to come!)  

This is my second treatment in the month of October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  At this time of year, more people are aware of breast cancer, and therefore more willing to give to the cause, in a similar way that people tend to be more giving and humble during the month of December, thanks to the spirit of Christmas.  Today is the second day this month that someone has donated lunch to the whole clinic, including patients!  It was sandwiches the first time, and today we're having pizza and fruit.  Someone just said, in response to this donation, "See, having cancer's not always bad!"

I'm having knee surgery on Friday!  This knee has been bothering me off and on for over two years, so I'm excited for the possibilities of having some elimination of once that's healed.  At the preregistration yesterday, the nurse couldn't believe I haven't done something about this problem before now.  As I've explained to several people, "Cancer trumps lots of other things."  That's I am ABLE to have surgery on my knee is a blessing--it means that's the most bothersome health issue in my life right now.  

In other news, my hair is growing and almost long enough for a "real" cut.  In playing around with different styles, I even tried some bangs.  I laughed at myself the minute I saw this look in the mirror, for it reminded me of an image from my childhood.  It's as if I just met my long-lost twin sister at a summer camp and had her cut my hair short like hers in order to fool our parents and pull the switch on them!  

That's more like it:  

It's hard to believe we are almost through October.  We're going to turn around and be celebrating a new year! That means I'm coming up on 1 year of NEV. (No evidence of disease.)  Part of me wants to shout that from the rooftops, and part of me is waiting for lightning to strike again.  I've been having some headaches this week, pretty bad headaches that I can feel in the back of my head and in my sinuses.  They go away, and they could just be attributed to hunger, stress, or lack of sleep, but that little, questioning voice inside wonders....is cancer back?  These are some of the little things I now deal with---every pain and ache, is that cancer?  I try to not focus on that line of thinking, but it's not always easy.  

For now, I just keep on putting one foot in front of the other and have faith that things will work out--no matter how they work out--and that God will keep taking care of me and my family.  

In case you haven�t heard�

by Andreas Schleicher
Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

It�s (almost) that time again: in just a few short weeks we�ll be hearing a lot more about how well our education systems are doing compared with others around the world. On 6 December, the latest results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, better known as PISA, will be made public. If you aren�t yet sure about what PISA is or how it works, check out this new video. And watch this space: there will be more PISA-related information posted here in the coming weeks to help you understand what everyone will be talking about when the results from the 2015 assessment are released.



Links:
PISA
The Alliance for Excellent Education and OECD webinar : PISA 2015: A Sneak Preview 
Tuesday 25 October 2016 9:30 am � 10:30 am ET
Bob Wise, president of the Alliance and former governor of West Virginia and Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills share sample questions from PISA and discuss how PISA can impact education policy around the world.

Watch webinar here.

Follow #OECDPISA on twitter

MRI Results

Instead of having an "old soul," I'm beginning to think I'm a young soul in an old body.  

My left knee has been bothering me for a couple of years.  I planned on finally having it looked at last year after Stephen healed from his surgery.  However, cancer overshadowed those plans.  

I had a steroid shot in it earlier in the year that actually helped, but has worn off.  Now, the pain has gotten so annoying that another shot isn't going to help....it was time to see a doctor to see about fixing it and not just trying to cover it up.  

I had an MRI on my left knee on Wednesday.  Yesterday, I got the results:

there were pieces of cartilage "floating around" in there.

And, oh yeah:

ARTHRITIS.  

See?  Old Body.

This body keeps getting cancer and now is starting to be bothered with arthritis.  (I also have it in my hips.)

So.....I'll be having arthroscopic surgery on my knee next Friday to clean out the cartilage that probably broke off from some type of little injury and could now be getting caught underneath the joint and causing pain.  There will be two small incisions in my knee: one for a camera and one for the tools.  The incisions won't be the cause of pain; they won't even be large enough to need stitches or staples.  The pain of the surgery will be on the inside, from all the digging around to clear out the cartilage.  

I'll be on crutches for 24-48 hours, not able to drive for a few days, and will need about 6 weeks of recovery, with some physical therapy.  

It's always something.      

What can maths teachers learn from PISA?

by Andreas Schleicher

Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

When we think back on schools in the 20th century, we imagine rows of students facing the front of the classroom and listening to the teacher lecture. Even though more and more education policies over the past 20 years are encouraging teachers to give students the chance to actively participate in their learning, in 2012, only one in four students across OECD countries reported that their teacher asks them to break out into small groups to work out a problem on their own.

Of course, teachers want students to enjoy the learning process but they also want students to focus on the topic at hand, keeping disorder in the classroom to a minimum. OECD�s newest report, Ten Questions for Mathematics Teachers� and how PISA can help answer them, based on PISA 2012 data, delves into diverse teaching and learning methods and what works for different types of classrooms around the world.

When it comes to learning mathematics, certain teacher-directed learning strategies, such as asking questions to check whether students understand what has been taught, has proven to work well when solving basic mathematics problems. And research does show that student-oriented strategies, such as allowing students to collaborate and direct their own learning, can have a positive impact on their learning and motivation.

But teacher-directed strategies, and in fact all teaching strategies, work best when teachers also challenge students and encourage them to focus more on the process rather than the answer. These types of strategies, known as cognitive-activation strategies, ask students to summarise, question and predict � requiring students to link new information to information they have already learned and apply their skills to a new context where the answer to a problem is not immediately obvious or can even be solved in multiple ways. In fact, PISA data indicate that across OECD countries, students who reported that their teachers use cognitive-activation strategies more frequently in their mathematics classes score higher in mathematics.

Depending on the classroom environment, teachers understand that they need to combine different strategies to ensure that students grasp the basic concepts but are also able to advance further when ready, tackling more challenging problems on their own.

Ten Questions for Mathematics Teachers explores these topics along with others that are relevant for mathematics teachers today. The report takes findings based on PISA data and organises them into ten questions encompassing teaching and learning strategies, curriculum coverage and various student characteristics, looking at how they relate to student achievement, mathematics instruction and to each other. Ten Questions aims to give teachers timely evidence-based insights that will help them reflect on their teaching strategies and how students learn.

Links:
Ten Questions for Mathematics Teachers� and how PISA can help answer them
Equations and Inequalities: Making Mathematics Accessible to All

OECD Education Working Paper No. 130: How teachers teach and students learn: Successful strategies for school 

PISA 2012 Results

Webinar - Friday, October 7, 2016 9:30 am � 10:45 am ET

Ten Questions for Mathematics Teachers� and How PISA Can Help Answer Them Presented by The Alliance for Excellent Education and OECD. 

Register here.

Photo credit: � OECD

Empowering teachers with high-quality professional development

by Fabian Barrera-Pedemonte
UCL Institute of Education and Thomas J. Alexander Fellow

Today marks World Teacher�s Day, which aims to address the challenge of mobilising a roadmap for teachers towards 2030. UNESCO acknowledges that a considerable intensification of effort is needed to provide sufficiently qualified, motivated and supported teachers. To underline the task ahead according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, countries will need to recruit a total of 12.6 million primary teachers by 2020. However, the question remains for policy makers is how can they provide for the demand and development of teachers while maintaining quality education? Teacher policies are complex and interdependent, and well-performing countries do not necessarily converge in this regard.

A new OECD working paper �High-Quality Teacher Professional Development and Classroom Teaching Practices: Evidence from TALIS 2013� advocates for more sensitive measures to capture the actual support experienced by teachers in the light of their professional development opportunities. It examines the association between crucial features of professional development and effective teaching practices across 35 countries and economies that participated in TALIS 2013.

Discussions between experts and stakeholders have looked at teachers� annual participation in activities of professional development which, gives an indication of how much guidance and support they receive in their careers. However, research has shown that availability of in-service training is not the problem - it is the quality of training received that makes all of the difference. The challenge for policy makers is to identify and select the features of professional development that are more likely to modify and improve teaching practices.

The paper suggests that a global monitoring of the support given to teachers could measure the quality of teacher professional development as a key indicator of progress.

Certain features of teacher professional development are more important than others for the adoption of quality teaching practices. Curriculum focused development is clearly more related to the adoption of classroom practices than pedagogy and subject matter focused training. By stimulating collaboration between teachers, where they share and support their learning process, shows a systematically positive association with all reported teaching methods.

However, the findings also show that is not so much that one particular feature that makes a quality TPD programme, but rather a combination of characteristics. TPD that has an active learning approach, incorporates teacher from the same school, promotes collaboration between teachers, is carried out over the long term, and is curriculum focused was positively associated with the strategies carried out by teachers to improve students� learning in practically all of the 35 countries and economies that participated in TALIS 2013. In general, these results suggest that the higher the exposure of teachers to high-quality TPD, the greater the chance they report using a wide variety of teaching methods in the classroom. Furthermore, this dimension is cross-culturally comparable, making it highly relevant when it comes to looking at contrasting countries with diverse historical and social development. 

This paper suggests the following policies for consideration for teacher professional development:

• encouraging teachers� engagement in curriculum-focused and collaborative learning activities or research with other teachers
• developing strategies to monitor its quality  whilst ensuring national standards and assurance procedures
• removing barriers due to gender or other factors  identified at the national or local level (e.g. ethnicity, types of schools, etc.)
• ensuring that teachers who have not completed initial training are also exposed to high-quality support in this area.

Exposure to high quality teacher professional development varies greatly both between and within countries, which broadens the scope of work for policy makers. The global education agenda is undeniably ambitious and the teaching profession will be a key to fulfilling these goals for the benefit of societies worldwide.

Links:
OECD Education Working Paper No. 141: High-Quality Teacher Professional Development and Classroom Teaching Practices: Evidence from TALIS 2013
TALIS 2013 Results: An International Perspective on Teaching and Learning
Photo credit: Vector illustration of poster to the World teacher's day on the gradient green background @Fotolia

H&P #13

Breast Cancer Awareness Month has started off with a bang.

Between being nominated as a recipient of a local fundraiser, hearing my book should be coming out this month, attending the Surviving and Thriving luncheon, and now back at treatment, the month already feels much longer than 4 days.  

Last year, I was invited to attend Pink Alliance's luncheon as a guest of a physician friend who owns a local free-standing ER.  As big donors, the ER had their own table in a prime location.  My second cancer diagnosis was still fresh, so much so that I was called on stage as the survivor with the newest diagnosis.  This year, I was barely able to get tickets, as the even was sold out so quickly, and I had been placed on a waiting list.  I was able to secure tickets for myself and some fellow Boobers! I was surprised when all the breast cancer survivors were asked to stand that less that half of the packed room stood up from their chairs.  Then, when the same invitation for the newest survivors to remain standing was made to this year's crowd, my memories from last year immediately flooded back.  It seems like a lifetime ago, yet still so fresh. 

The biggest piece of advice I took from the inspirational speaker, Texan Kendra Scott, was about failure and hardships.  WE HAVE TO HAVE THEM.  All the failures and struggles of her life have actually been bridges that have prepared her for being ready for what comes next.  She lost her step-father to brain cancer, her first business (The Hat Box--hats for cancer patients and more)  went under, she started peddling jewelry in a tea box, also while carrying her newborn son, was told that a major fashion brand could never come out of Texas, has lost close friends to breast cancer.....all of these have prepared her and pushed her into what she has been able to accomplish so far.  She has an amazing philanthropic philosophy and is doing an amazing program for breast cancer this month.  20% of her sales of specific jewelry will be donated to Breast Cancer Research Foundation, AND a second piece of jewelry will be donated to a breast cancer patient.  She will even be sending hand written notes of love and encouragement to those patients.  (We got to write some at the luncheon!)  Go to her website, HERE, to find out more!  She's spreading the mantras: Hope Matters and "You do good."  (The 3-word phrase her late step-father was able to speak after brain surgery in response to her opening her hat store.)  We can all "do good" with what we have been given.

Who knows how long any of us has here on earth.  I know that time is best spent trying to make a difference in the lives of those around us.  Find the things that you are passionate about and talented in and find a way to "do good."

Treasure the Chests

An awesome local couple, owners of two restaurants in our community, do something quite special for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Every Tuesday in October, they hold a fundraiser at each of their restaurants for one recipient, and I WAS CHOSEN AS ONE!!!

My day will be Tuesday, October 18th, at the Shipwreck Grill.  A portion of their total sales for both lunch and dinner will be donated to our family.  I am so touched and grateful for this opportunity, and hope to be able to give back in my own small way.  I'm trying to get together a basket of items to auction off, the proceeds going back to my breast cancer support group!

Another way to help, Shipwreck Grill will be selling these t-shirts, by CC Creations, for $15...the proceeds being donated to Pink Alliance.

I could not be more honored for their opportunity and hope to see lots of loved ones, as well as make some new friends on October 18th!

Don't forget your annual check-ups, as well as self-exams.  My prayer is that one day soon we will not have to worry about this awful disease.  Until then, "Treasure the Chests," and check or get checked often!



**If you are not able to come eat lunch or dinner that day. Go on another Tuesday in October, or consider donating to our family HERE.